Monday, 27 May 2013

I love skittles (the sweets) and as soon as I'd finished this design, I had to go out and buy a packet. I didn't intend it to look like skittles but the colours just ended up matching, thus we have leopard skittles!

I started off with a white base using Essie Blanc. I then stamped a leopard print design from Konad plate m57, and when everything was completely dry (helped along with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) I taped off 1/4 of the nail and painted over the design with bright colours, before removing the tape and leaving the leopard tips. I filled in the leopard print with the matching colours using a tiny nail art brush.

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

I've used many studs from Born Pretty Store in the past, but these little round gold ones have to be my favourite. I find them to be the most versatile and you can add them to any kind of manicure. I prefer a minimalist approach to stud nail art; I usually do an accent nail or a very small amount of studs on each nail. Less is more!

I started with a base colour of W7 Black (you can't go wrong with glossy black polish and gold studs!) I applied a top coat to make my nails sticky, and placed my studs using a wax pen which I've previously reviewed here - it makes the job much easier! A good tip is to arrange the studs in the pattern you want on your desk before application, so you know exactly how you want to place them.

You can also add a top coat over the studs when you're finished, to help them last longer. I don't think I'll

ever tire of studs! I have a huge array in my nail art stash now!

You can find these exact studs (1.5mm) here at Born Pretty Store. I notice the site has had a bit of a makeover! As you probably know, they offer free worldwide shipping and you can get 10% off any order by entering my code: LGL91

Monday, 20 May 2013

I just love fish tail nail art! I kind of prefer to call it braided nail art though because I don't like saying "fish tail"... it sounds gross. I think everybody knows it as that though, so I'm conforming!

I've never actually got round to trying this style before now, so this is my first one. I took a peek at the tutorial on Lucy's Stash first to make sure I got it right! I used Barry M Guava Gelly as my base colour, and for the braiding I used Barry M Plum Gelly and Silver Foil Effects.

I deliberated for a while on whether to use nail art brushes or the bottle brushes, in the end I went with the bottle brushes because Barry M ones are quite thin anyway. If your nails are small though you might be better off using a nail art brush.

I was surprised at how easy it was, can't wait to try another one with different colours!

Saturday, 18 May 2013

I said in this post that I wanted to use Clinique Call My Buff in a jelly sandwich, and here it is! It works quite well. I used 3 coats of Call My Buff, then 1 coat of Angelica Brit Pop, followed by 2 more coats of Call My Buff over the top.